Monday, April 04, 2011

Calls

For the A to Z Challenge, I’m posting promo and other tips for writers. Today it’s calls.

If you’re a writer or author, at some point, you’ll start making phone calls.

You’ll use calls to set up appearances and media interviews. You’ll talk to editors, publishers, and reporters. You’ll call bookstores and libraries.

For some people, calls are no big deal. For others, the phone weights a thousand pounds! I used to work at UPS and my job was to call people and say “Your package is lost, damaged, destroyed - we don’t know where it is!” Fun, huh? Let me say it took a lot of courage to pick up a phone again.

Here’s some tips that might help:

Make a list of names and numbers to call

Sketch out what you’re going to say. Practice. Don’t read it over the phone or it’ll sound scripted.

I think practicing what you're going to say--know your points, be able to deliver them smoothly and conversationally--is a good one.

I also found it good to block time for just phone calls. I did this when doing promotion and marketing.

First phone call is the hardest and remembering that no doesn't kill you and if you handle right, no can still be a yes for the future. I always try to cultivate each for a future contact. Always keep notes because there are so many *nuggets* of info you can use to develop for future calls.

Smile? yep, you can hear it and surprisingly, I still employ it when I write answers to or requests for things. It works even then because it sets you mind to the right groove.

Hi, Diane, Thanks for the offer of bookmarks for my library, and if I still worked in one, I would be happy to have a bunch of them. I retired from teaching and librarying almost 17 years ago. Wow! It sounds like a long time when I say it that way. Ha. Thanks for visiting me. Com back and see me again if you can. Ruby

I've made a lot of calls in my time. There were good days and there were bad days. I learned that when I began a day and there was a streak of nos it was better to stop and start again the next days. Too many nos could be dispiriting.